Hey gang! I have owned several of these over the years. They have all exhibited a similar roller striations of the obverse as seen on this example. However from my research I find that these should weigh 7.11 grams. This piece weighs 5.6 grams... any thoughts? Counterfeit? Struck on an underweight planchet?
One look at this piece and I've got alarms going off that say fake. The surfaces are completely wrong. Yes these typically show roller striations, and they also tend to come with file marks as well, but they also normally have hard smooth surfaces not uneven grainy porous ones like this one has. The strike is also usually very good as well. This one with the strong but not full center and extremely weak periphery just doesn't feel right. Then throw in the underweight and I say it's no good.
Probably an old counterfeit. Back then people would make underweight counterfeits because back then a cent was litteraly a cents worth of copper lol but it could also be an underweight one minted so accidentally. Your guess is as good as mine but either way it is one nice coin
Mike, In all likelyhood you are probably correct... but wouldn't a piece struck on a thin planchet show strength in the center and weakness towards the periphery as well? Why would the fake have the roller marks as well?
If it is thin enough to show that much weakness around the periphery I would not expect that much strength in the center. The originals of these things were made in the 1820's in England by experienced coiners. They just don't look like this.
